Back
Automatically translated version. May contain inaccuracies compared to the original.
This private university, effectively run by former MP Serhiy Kivalov and formally owned by his grandson, topped the ranking of Kyiv’s most popular private universities by the number of admission applications in 2026 year.
The scandal surrounding the institution flared up after a mass initiation of first-year students was held outdoors during an air raid alarm. However, in Tomenko's view, the main problem goes deeper — as long as the war continues in the country, a university connected to an odious figure is training personnel for the law enforcement system and national security.
How state property passed into private hands
Kivalov’s educational empire gradually expanded from Odesa to Kyiv. As Tomenko notes, the process of taking state assets lasted for years with the silent consent of officials:
“Kivalov’s Educational Empire entered Ukraine’s capital from Odesa, gradually privatizing property, land, and management of what was once the State Institute of Intellectual Property, created by the Ministry of Education back in 1996 year. Then, with the support of all presidents, a friendly judiciary, and due to the Ministry of Education’s inaction, everything state became private property of the Kivalov family.”.
Today, Serhiy Kivalov bears the unofficial nickname “Count” and heads three institutions at once: the state Odessa Law Academy, and two private universities — International University of Intellectual Property and Law and Kyiv University of Intellectual Property and Law (where the legal owner through a British company is his grandson Serhiy Kosyanenko).
Document: PDF proof of the original version of the news item "Освітня імперія Ківалова: як приватний виш одіозного політика став найпопулярнішим у воєнному Києві". It records the publication content at the moment of the first scan, the preservation date and the source: Aktsenty.
